The excitement multiplies - virtual inter-ESF math race adds to the interest in 2020
By Eunie Jeong
On November 28th, 2020, the 5th inter-ESF math race was held. Students from across ESF schools competed in groups for this event. It was organised by Year 12 students Angus Leung, Joshua Tsang and Justin Lam. However, with the recent Coronavirus cases, this year the event was held virtually on Zoom instead of at a physical venue. Although this change required adjustment as to how team rounds would be run, it was a marked success.
Over 200 participants in the math race started out with an address from RCHK mathematics teacher, Shobha Sanker, and a short speech of encouragement from Dr Harry Brown, Head of Secondary at RCHK. Competition for Years 7-8 were held from 8:30 to 12:30, while years 9-10 from 1:30 to 5: 30. The first round lasted for thirty minutes, and pre-arranged teams of three were put into breakout rooms.
A form of ten pattern solving questions involving both answer and explanation was set, and teams were racing against time while trying to solve these questions. RCHK math teachers visited each breakout room, no doubt amused by the conversations being held. Each question was worth ten marks.
How did the participants feel about the questions? Anastasia Yu, 9.3 comments that “the questions were quite suitable for our level and fun to solve as well.”
The next round was an individual Kahoot with a mixed genre of questions. Some were real math questions (the kind you would expect in a workbook); others were trick questions (some you would find on the internet); still others were unique ESF style in Hong Kong context questions (not sure where you would find these). The final type required knowledge of trivia: for example, how many stations were between two specific MTR stations.
Keshav Gupta from 9.4 states that “Some questions required quick calculation, while some were just trick questions.“ Certainly, the promise that the math race would involve “fun questions”, as predicted in the email sent out, was fulfilled.
Finally, the video round. This round, “was to do with math”, as the participants were assured by the leading student. Videos were shown and questions about details questioned about, which seemed more like a memory game than typical math questions.
Finally, after a short break, everyone came back online for the prizes and awards. Winners were in individual and group awards, and special congratulations accorded to those that were among the top groups or students, but also to everyone who participated.
All of this was made possible by the student organisers. Joshua Tsang, one of the organizers, said that “the overall competition rundown was quite smooth,” and the participants appreciated the variety of questions. Yu further commented that it was an”enjoyable and a worthwhile experience.” According to Tsang, contrary to what was expected, there were no “major technical difficulties”. Rather, “as past participants and volunteers for the Inter-ESF Math Race, it was definitely a great experience and honour for us to be in the driver's seat.” He further added that not only will there be another inter-ESF math race next year, but for those students who are interested in math, there are other competitions such as Dragon Maths, UKMT, AMC etc.
Despite little surprises, participants in this year's ESF 2020 math race, regardless of the outcome, would agree that they would “definitely go again next year.”